Rebels: "Twilight of the Apprentice -- Part One" (Ep. 2.21)

-- "There's always a bit of truth in legends."

And now for the moment I've all been waiting for...!

It's Chopper versus an inquisitor, and Chopper...

Oh, wait, no. That's not what I've been waiting for.

I may have indicated in my review of Solo that I was quite excited by the reintroduction of Darth Maul into the movies. Not that I was ever one of those huge Darth Maul fans after The Phantom Menace. In fact, I wasn't all that impressed with Darth Maul. But, the truth is, he was never supposed to be dead dead. Lucas always intended to bring him back and the only reason he didn't come back in Attack of the Clones was because Ray Park opened his mouth about it within a few weeks of the opening of Phantom, so Lucas brought in Darth Tyranus instead. Still, I can understand people not being thrilled about him being brought back. Being cut in half is pretty final...

Unless you take into account that General Grievous was a heart and a brain and eyes in a robot body. I'm assuming that's all they were able to salvage of his organics. Compared to that, Maul was a veritable treasure trove!

All of that aside, I've found Maul to be a much more interesting character since they brought him back in Clone Wars. Not right at first, but, as they've gone along, they have deepened his character and complicated his motivations. I very much want to see what they have in store for him, and I am going to be sorely aggravated if we don't get the rest of the Solo trilogy, not for Solo but for Maul.

His first appearance here in Rebels is intriguing, which is about all I'm going to say about it until I get a chance to watch part two. I guess you'll just have to come back for that.
Or go watch it yourself.

"You don't exactly outrank me anymore."

"In my book, experience outranks everything."

"Then I definitely outrank you."

Clone Wars -- "Conspiracy" (Ep. 6.2)

-- The wise benefit from a second opinion.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

[Well, actually, considering that we're into season six, now, probably no one new is going to sign up, BUT! Hop over to The Armchair Squid for his take on the current episode.]

The Jedi have sent Tup to Kamino to find out what caused him to assassinate Jedi Master Tiplar. This is somewhat like Brer Fox throwing Brer Rabbit into the briar patch. Not that it's exactly the Kaminoans fault. Apparently, they really just don't "get" the Jedi and don't understand that "Lord" Tyrranus is a Sith and not part of the Jedi Order. And it doesn't really seem to bother them that they are taking secret orders from one "Jedi" that they must not let any of the other Jedi know about.

Or maybe they just don't care because why question the money?

At any rate, it puts the Kaminoans at cross purposes with the Jedi and, specifically, Fives.

Fives, of course, doesn't much care for anyone else's agenda if it puts Tup, his best friend, in danger, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to save Tup's life, a life the Kaminoans plan to end to cover up the fact that clones have inhibitor chips in their heads put there at the behest of the Sith.

Again, this is a great arc and one of the most significant ones in the series. You should do yourself a favor and watch it.

Also, the droid character AZ-3 is a good addition for the episode. Its relationship with Fives is interesting to watch.

One other interesting note: There are empty seats on the Jedi Council. I'm not sure if they've shown that before, but there are at least two seats empty during a consultation in this episode.


"I always wanted to have human feelings. But I do not. Goodbye."

Clone Wars -- "Nightsisters" (Ep. 3.12)

-- The swiftest path to destruction is through vengeance.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

The first thing I want to say is that Asajj Ventress has a cool star fighter.
Oh, yeah, Ventress is back!

The second thing is that it's nice to be back on Dathomir, kinda like going home. Wait a minute, you say, we've never been to Dathomir. Well, that's true. But Dathomir was one of the planets available for exploration in the old Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG, and the Nightsisters are an enemy I'm familiar with. It's nice to see the home of the rancors finally make its way into Star Wars canon. Even so, The Clone Wars is not Galaxies.

When Asajj Ventress was first introduced, it was without any kind of back story. She just showed up and kind of demanded that Dooku train her (this was back in the original Clone Wars micro series in 2003), which he relented to do after she managed to impress him. Now, after years as Dooku's top assassin and most effective agent, Darth Sidious has decided that she has become a threat.

You know the whole Sith thing, right? There can be only two. During the Clone Wars, those two are Darth Sidious (Palpatine) and Darth Tyranus (Dooku), but Sidious has come to believe that Ventress is becoming strong enough as Dooku's apprentice that Dooku will be able to displace him as the master. For Sith, such displacement means assassination.

So Sidious calls up Dooku on the holophone and tells him to put Ventress down. Period. Prove his loyalty and kill her. Now.

Which is an interesting thing with the Sith, since it's common practice to kill your most powerful agents because they are your most power agents. You know, that's why Palpatine has Anakin kill Dooku rather than just take them both on as his apprentices, and, yeah, there's some history to why this is, but, right now, as far as I know, none of that is canon.

All of that to say that this episode takes us off on a new path in The Clone Wars, a path full of all kinds of interesting things and interesting characters. Oh, and there are a lot of light sabers in this one. It's definitely a must see episode.


"There's a disturbance in the Force."

Clone Wars -- The Movie

-- A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

I got to see The Clone Wars at a special Lucasfilm premiere event. It was a pretty big deal, and they had a special display area set up at the Presidio offices with original, concept art and maquettes, which are like concept sculptures. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures, so I don't have any to show you. However, we got lunch in Star Wars lunch boxes created specially for the event. My friend didn't want his, so he gave it to me. I'd show you a picture of the lunch boxes, but they're in storage somewhere, and I'm not going to go dig around for them right now.

I'm not sure how widespread this information is, but one of the things we were let in on at the event is that the movie actually started out as individual episodes of the series. It was the first story arc. If you pay attention and are familiar enough with the series, you can actually see how the movie breaks down into its constituent episodes. On the one hand, I think launching the TV series with a movie was a great idea; however, I think they probably would have done better to have actually developed a movie rather than to string the several episodes together into a movie.

Which is not to say I didn't like it, because I enjoyed it very much, but the general response to the movie was a little underwhelming and I think part of the reason for that is that it didn't play like a movie. Because it wasn't.

The other failure of the movie was to involve the offspring of Jabba the Hutt. I think that's something people didn't want to look at. One, they don't want to see slug babies and, two, they don't want to view Jabba with any kind of sympathetic light. It's hard not to have sympathy for a parent who just wants his kid back. Personally, I found it an interesting take on Jabba, but I can see how it could cause people difficulty.

All of that said, the movie opens with a tremendous battle scene between the clones and the droids. It's, in a word, spectacular. The movement is very much like a video game, say Battlefront, and it's almost worth the whole movie just for that battle scene.

Also, this is where we're introduced to Ahsoka Tano, so the movie is essential from that standpoint. Anakin doesn't want a Padawan, but they send him one, anyway. A plot between Yoda and Obi-Wan, though they don't admit to it. He's set to get rid of her until he has to work with her during the battle, at which point he changes his mind. His comment to her is something like, "You wouldn't have made it as Obi-Wan's apprentice but, as mine, you just might work."

There are some other significant elements as well.

• Anakin faces off against Dooku. The Anakin vs Dooku dynamic is important not just in the series but in the movie mythos as a whole. Anakin has to rise above Darth Tyranus in order to become Darth Vader, so it's always interesting to see how that relationship develops.
• There is this incredible vertical battle between the clones and the droids during which the tanks walk up the face of a cliff. I know it's animated, but it's amazing.
• Anakin comes by his ship, the Twilight.

Basically, the movie serves to set up all the essential elements for the ongoing television series. It's not that you can't watch the series without having seen the movie, but the movie helps, especially for the dynamic between Ahsoka and Anakin. I think, also, if the approach to the movie is that of watching several episodes of the series back-to-back that it becomes much more satisfying. It's all in the frame of reference.

It's not, by any stretch, the best story arc in the series or, even, the best story arc in season one; however, it possibly does have the best battle scenes. I'm not remembering anything more epic than the one the movie opens with, at any rate. It's a solid arc, and it ought to be included in anyone's watching of the series.



"Why can't you be a tiny, little mouse droid!"